Sen. Cardin needs to drop uncritical support of Israel

June 30, 2011

Your Maryland Politics blog "Cardin: Obama should seek authority on Libya" (June 27) describes a speech that Sen. Ben Cardin gave to the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs Monday evening. Senator Cardin spent most of his speech praising Israel and saying that Israel is always right and must be supported more strongly by the U.S., meaning that American taxpayers should send billions more dollars to Israel.

Yet Mr. Cardin failed to mention that Israel has been brutally occupying and oppressing the Palestinians for over 40 years, engaging in land and water theft, home demolitions, mass arrests including torture, targeted assassinations, hundreds of humiliating road blocks and check points, and daily settler violence including the murder of unarmed Palestinians.

Moreover, Mr. Cardin told an outrageous lie when he said that Palestinians in Gaza were suffering because of their Hamas leadership. In fact, it is the stranglehold of Israel's blockade that has turned Gaza into the world's largest prison.

The entire world community, except for Israel's puppets in Washington like Mr. Cardin, have condemned Israel's atrocities against the civilian population in Gaza. There is even now a peace flotilla ready to bring much needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza that Israel is threatening to attack.